National 12s at Yeadon

A fleet of 16 National 12s competed at Yeadon for the eighth race in the Old Spice Northern circuit

A fleet of 16 National 12s competed at Yeadon for the eighth race in the Old Spice Northern circuit many having sailed at Ripon the day before making it a weekend of competitive sailing on 11-12 October.

The fleet again ranged from the latest double bottomed creations to 5 immaculately restored vintage boats all of which enjoyed good racing, fine weather and plenty of wind although the direction made course setting difficult by blowing across what is a very small lake to start with, hence the beats were very short.

The first race started cleanly and locals John and Alison Cheetham (3209) managed to break clear at the start and never looked back although Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne (3469) were in hot pursuit as the rest of the fleet were frequently changing places in the tricky wind conditions. Phillip and Helen David (3217) managed to break clear into third position and these places were maintained to the end.

The second race included some boat swapping between Mark Simpson (3244) and Graham Camm (3469). Camm seemed to go every bit as fast in a Crusader as he does in his hi-tech machine but then retired from the race. The finishing positions this time were Phillip and Helen David first with John and Alison Cheetham second and Howard Chadwick and Helen Nicholson in third position.

Race three saw a high drop out as some of the sailors were feeling the strain of two days hard competition but with the winner still to be decided this was set to be a close race and so it proved. The Cheethams made a good start and kept clear the Davids as these two pulled away from the fleet but were never far from each other. Eventually the Davids broke through to win the race and the event from the Cheethams with racing that kept the spectators glued to the course right up to the final bell.

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